


Flying Over The Labyrinth

by Angel Ascending (angel_in_ink)



Series: Short and Sweet (Fics of About 1000 Words or Less) [24]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Character Study, Fluff, M/M, The Super Tiniest Spoiler For Something That Happens In Episode 47 Of Campaign 2, Trouble Reading
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-10-08 11:47:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17385923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_in_ink/pseuds/Angel%20Ascending
Summary: In theory, Caduceus is reading. He’s sitting in the common room of the Leaky Tap, near the warmth of the fire, with a good cup of tea and the book Caleb gave him about the studies of chemical compounds on corrupted plant life open on his lap. Every so often he finishes reading a page and turns it. It’s been several hours and many cups of tea, but not terribly many turnings of pages. Reading is a process. It’s a process that he enjoys, like gardening or digging a grave, but a process nonetheless.Wherein thoughts are compared to birds and sometimes one's brain is a labyrinth.





	Flying Over The Labyrinth

In theory, Caduceus is reading. He’s sitting in the common room of the Leaky Tap, near the warmth of the fire, with a good cup of tea and the book Caleb gave him about the studies of chemical compounds on corrupted plant life open on his lap. Every so often he finishes reading a page and turns it. It’s been several hours and many cups of tea, but not terribly many turnings of pages. Reading is a process. It’s a process that he enjoys, like gardening or digging a grave, but a process nonetheless. Whereas Caleb….

Caleb might possibly be part of the reason that Caduceus is reading so slowly. He’s reading as well, Frumpkin curled on his lap, and there’s a thoughtful look on his face. It’s not very often that Caduceus has seen the wizard nearly _relaxed_ and it’s utterly fascinating. His expression doesn’t seem to carry the tenseness that it normally does, even though he is obviously concentrating on what he’s reading. He simply pets Frumpkin with one hand and turns pages with the other with a speed Caduceus would envy if he was the envious sort. The sound of the constant flipping of pages puts Caduceus in mind of the sound of a bird’s wings when they take to the air.

Caleb glances up, and Caduceus can see some of his ease fade away as he realizes that he’s being watched. “Yes? Do you need something?”

“It’s like birds, isn’t it?”

Caleb blinks and his brow furrows. “What is?”

“When you read. The words just go straight into your head and you understand them right away. It’s like birds, how they fly the shortest distance between two points. The information just goes from the book into your brain and you just… know it.”

“Yes…” Caleb gives Caduceus a curious look, like the firbolg is a puzzle, the same look he had worn while he had been fiddling with the Happy Fun Ball. It’s not an unkind look. “Is that not how it works for you?”

“It’s more like….” Caduceus marks his place in the book with an interesting leaf he found before closing it. “Have you ever walked a labyrinth?”

Caleb shakes his head.

“Well it’s like this.” Caduceus starts tracing a spiral shape on the cover of the book with one long finger. “A labyrinth isn’t like a maze. Mazes have multiple paths, and dead ends, and sometimes more than one way in or out. It’s a puzzle. A challenge. But labyrinths, they’re different. There’s only the one winding path that leads to the center and back out again. They’re meant to be walked slowly, meditatively. When I read it’s like the information has to walk through this labyrinth to get the center before I can understand it. It’s pleasant, like walking a labyrinth is in real life, it just takes awhile.” Caduceus taps the cover of the book. “This feels like it’s important though, like I _should_ be reading it more quickly.”

Caleb nods thoughtfully. “What about when you’re being read to? Is it easier for you to reach understanding? Faster?”

Caduceus has to think about that. “It’s been so many seasons since I was last read to. My parents didn’t have a lot of time for that sort of thing by the time I came along, with so many of us around. My sister used to read to me sometimes though. But I was young, I didn’t think about the way I thought back then.”

“Hmmm. Well.” Caleb closes his book gently and moves Frumpkin from his lap to around his neck as he stands up. “If you are not adverse to it, we could do an experiment. I could read to you, if you wish. In your room, where it is less distracting.”

The common room is starting to fill up, and there is just enough noise and motion that Caduceus would have been even more distracted by his reading regardless. “That sounds like a wonderful idea, Mister Caleb,” Caduceus says as he stands up. “Lead the way.”

Reading books is a slow process for Caduceus, but reading the small, brief smile that quirks Caleb’s lips for a moment is easy, the meaning of it flying over the labyrinth of his mind and perching directly in his heart with a fluttering like wings or the pages of a book being turned.

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of people are amazed I write so fast. Want to know a secret? Caduceus reads like I write. I know what I want to write, all the words are there, sentences complete in my head. And each word has to travel a ridiculous distance through my head to get down on the page. It's the best way I can put it.
> 
> I read like Caleb though. 
> 
> I'm angel-ascending on tumblr and angel_in_ink on Twitter if y'all want to stop by and say hi!


End file.
